Random Musings

For those of you who don’t know, I’m under contract for my next book. Have been working on it since July-ish (though actually much longer). I’m wrapping up the first draft of chapter eight today, and if all goes well, I’ll have rough skeletons of the next two done by the end of the weekend. I am, so far, remaining on schedule – and I’d better be, since I’m under contract. It feels good. I just wish that feeling wasn’t so fleeting. Between my freelance work and social media work and podcasts and Youtube videos and managing a garden too big for my own good and everything else, it’s difficult to be as focused as I should be on this next book. And I DO…Read more

Peppers are an adventure. They’re not supposed to grow in the suburbs of New Jersey. They don’t belong in this part of the world, but we’re humans. We do what we want with Mother Nature (right up to the point where she does what she wants with us). We never really had success growing peppers in our yard, and that always disappointed me. All we wanted was some regular ol’ bell peppers. As a kid, I learned from my good friend Chris to eat them like apples, but with a salt shaker in hand. Bite, dash of salt, bite, dash of salt, until the whole thing was gone. So that’s how I came to love sweet peppers. Hot peppers were another story. I didn’t have the…Read more

Louis CK has a new special on Netflix called “2017.” If you don’t like Louis CK it won’t convert you, but if you do you’ll like it. It doesn’t rise to the level of “Chewed Up” or “Shameless,” but it’s better than the poorly named “Hilarious” (which was not). Good stuff that is pure Louis. More importantly, however, is that he came out as bisexual in it and no one seemed to notice. Like, he for real came out. Everyone seems to think it was just another bit intended for shock, but no. I don’t think so. I think it was a genuine coming out moment hiding in plain sight. The bit involves him talking about his love for the movie “Magic Mike” and how it stirs…Read more

These days, Marvel Studios make THE tentpole action flicks. With a combination of fun characters, good direction, solid stories, huge spectacle, and a formula that just works, they’ve created an ongoing, interwoven geek movie franchise that has every other studio scrambling to catch up. Make no mistake, I’m an unabashed fan. I don’t pretend they are classic cinema — they’re just comic book movies — but they do something important: they consistently make me feel like I’m 12 again, only without all the self-loathing and zits. From the tense drama of The Winter Soldier to the charming adventure of Ant-Man to the hilarious space adventure of Guardians of the Galaxy, I love this stuff. So do a LOT of people. Marvel movies are YUGE. Four of them…Read more

Somewhere along the line, we changed our minds about getting dirt on our hands. When you’re a kid, dirt is just something that happens on your way to dinner. It gets on your hands the way aches get in your bones as an adult. You don’t plan for it or think about it. It doesn’t stop your day unless fate is working against you, like your mom telling you to wash up or your back flaring up so bad you can’t get the recycling bin all the way down the driveway. Dirt happened. Your knees would get covered, too, jeans worn to white threads threatening to hole and sneakers equal parts rubber and mud. But it was the hands that did it. Caked dirt, dirt…Read more